Sunday Morning Gallery - Alpine Loop to Cinnamon Pass

Today's Sunday Morning Gallery is Part 2 of our Lake City vacation. After finding our campsite (see the April 26 blog entry in the archives) and enjoying a day of rest we packed up the 4 Runner with dogs and lunch and headed up the Alpine Loop 4WD road to Cinnamon Pass.

Cinnamon Pass Road is part of the Alpine Loop in the San Juan Mountains of Southwest Colorado. This route is opened by snowplow early in the season. Be warned though, in the summer peak season Cinnamon Pass Road is an extremely popular 4WD route. Parts of the road are a single lane rock shelf with no pull offs. Uphill traffic has the right of way in these situations and believe me when I say that you do not want to back up on some of this road! There are also a few switchbacks that a full sized SUV can not navigate without several passes. If you are squeamish about steep plunging drop offs without guard rails this may not be your cup of tea.

Like many trails/roads in Colorado, the Cinnamon Pass Road was travelled originally by Native American Indians, in this case Ute Indians. The first documented travel by white settlers was in the early 1860s when Charles Baker used Cinnamon Pass in his exploration of the San Juan mountains.

Cinnamon Pass is at 12,640 and there are signs located here explaining the tundra conditions at this altitude. By the way, this is not paid advertising for Toyota. But don't you think they should send me money for this shot?

After a fun day driving up to the pass we headed back to camp and our room with a view, popped a beer, and kicked back. Not a bad day.

Spring Snow on Stellers Ridge, Colorado

The snow that we were waiting and waiting for finally arrived. It caused major mayhem on the freeways and in town but on Stellers Ridge we were happy to see it.

This was a moderate snowfall for us. One that really did not cause us much trouble at all. One that we are very grateful to receive. So the snowplow came out of the corner of the garage at last and onto the F150. A path was plowed from the house to the saddle a third of a mile away where our street sign tells us where to turn. (If the sign looks out of place to you in the photo you can imagine how we feel about it.) And in the last photo, if you look real close, you can just make out our mountain abode at the end of the road. Drop in for a visit anytime. But be prepared to stay awhile if it snows.